{"id":132586,"date":"2018-09-24T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?p=132586"},"modified":"2020-09-17T10:22:40","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:22:40","slug":"professor-selected-to-speak-at-tedmed-stage-program","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2018\/professor-selected-to-speak-at-tedmed-stage-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Selected to Speak at TEDMED Stage Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
September 24, 2018<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tTwitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\tFacebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\"\"In 2016, Community Health Sciences Professor Emily Rothman<\/a> co-designed a pornography literacy curriculum pilot for teenagers, in part because \u201cpeople are tired of the idea that the only way of thinking about teenagers and pornography is that porn should be banned.\u201d This November, Rothman will speak about the genesis of the curriculum at TEDMED 2018, the health and medicine edition of the acclaimed TED Conference.<\/p>\n

The annual program will take place in Palm Springs, California, from November 14 to 16.<\/p>\n

Rothman will join a select lineup of scholars, thought leaders, researchers, physicians, designers, policy makers, artists, and engineers, whose talks and presentations will help generate new ideas and action to advance public health and science.<\/p>\n

Rothman will share insight on the creation of\u2014and public health need for\u2014a 10-session pornography literacy curriculum, formally titled The Truth About Pornography: A Pornography Literacy Curriculum for High School Students Designed to Reduce Sexual and Dating Violence. The curriculum does not advance the idea that all pornography is innately harmful to all young people in all contexts. Instead, it encourages youth to become more critical consumers of pornography. The pornography literacy curriculum was subjected to an evaluation which was carried out with help from SPH master\u2019s degree students. The results were published in the American Journal of Sexuality Education<\/em><\/a>. The curriculum also won the attention of a New York Times Magazine<\/em> reporter, and in 2018 was featured in the magazine\u2019s article about adolescents\u2019 exposure to pornography<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stance that we take is new for the field because we reflect the scientific literature, which has both positive and negative findings about the impact of pornography on people,\u201d Rothman says. \u201cIt really depends on who you are, what you’re watching, how often, and what the context is.\u201d<\/p>\n

A leading public health scholar on sexually explicit media and its impact on adolescent dating relationships, Rothman has studied closely how adolescents\u2019 exposure to pornography can shape their views and beliefs about intimacy. Her research has found that pornography is a primary source of information about sex for some samples of teenagers.<\/p>\n

To fill this educational gap, Rothman designed the pornography literacy curriculum with Nicole Daley (SPH\u201908), former director of the peer leadership program Start Strong at the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) and current director of engagement and evaluation for the One Love Foundation, as well as Jess Alder, program manager of Start Strong. The course debuted to youth enrolled in the Start Strong program and has also been offered to teens at Boston GLASS (Gay & Lesbian Adolescent Student Services). Participating youth learned about a range of topics, including healthy flirting and intimacy, the importance of consent, the difference between pornography and art, and the social impact of gender stereotypes in the media.<\/p>\n

Rothman says the response from participants, who were almost all between 15 and 18 years old, was largely positive, and that they did not shy away from asking questions and sharing their views on pornography.<\/p>\n

Many students were surprised to learn that sexting\u2014sending or receiving sexually explicit photographs or messages\u2014can count as disseminating child pornography and can technically lead to criminal charges. Massachusetts residents of any age who are convicted of sexting must register as sex offenders. The state legislature has introduced bills that would reevaluate the youth sex offender registration law, and place greater restrictions on underage access to internet pornography.<\/p>\n

Rothman hopes her talk at TEDMED will elevate the national conversation about adolescents\u2019 experience with pornography, and demonstrate the potential of more even-handed approaches to educating adolescents about sexually explicit media.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team takes a more nuanced and an evidence-based approach, and I believe that’s what’s so interesting to people about it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u2014Jillian McKoy<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emily Rothman will speak at TEDMED 2018 to share insight on pornography literacy curriculum that she co-designed for teenagers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15205,"featured_media":119701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[2439,1986,2319,1888],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3525,3541],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[295],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/132586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132586"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/132586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173387,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/132586\/revisions\/173387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132586"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=132586"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=132586"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=132586"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=132586"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=132586"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=132586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}